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For Bush, a Light Moment on a Painful Topic

President Bush rarely refers to one of the unhappier chapters in his life, the compulsive drinking that led him to give up alcohol altogether 17 years ago.

But on Monday, at the BMW auto manufacturing plant near here, he could not resist mentioning it, for the second time in two weeks.

Mr. Bush, making a stop before a campaign event that raised $1.5 million, was speaking with Steve Thies, the president and chief executive of the Spartanburg Steel Products Inc., a privately held manufacturer that provides much of the steel used in the two car models that BMW produces here. His company also has a side business, Mr. Thies noted, making beer kegs.

''We're the only American beer keg manufacturer in North America,'' he boasted to the president, in front of a few hundred employees of BMW and Spartanburg Steel.

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Mr. Thies could not resist a quick one-liner. ''Well,'' he told the president, ''we did notice a dip in demand at that point in time.'' After an initial gasp, the crowd roared. ''But probably no relationship,'' Mr. Thies added.

Friends of the president have often credited his wife, Laura, as the one who forced Mr. Bush to confront his drinking on the morning after his 40th birthday, when plenty was imbibed. As president, he has never been seen to take a drink, even at state dinners. He either avoids a sip after giving a toast, or he reaches for water.

Mr. Bush last raised the subject in public on Oct. 29, speaking at a church in Dallas. There he said that the best way to help ''a person who is stuck on drugs and alcohol'' was to ''change their heart.''

''See, if you change their heart, then they change their behavior,'' Mr. Bush said then. After a pause, he added, ''I know.''